John the Baptist
Preparing the Lord's coming
“Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak to the heart of DCU, and proclaim to her that her service has ended, that her guilt is expiated, that she has received from the hand of the Lord double for all her sins. A voice proclaims: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!” (Is. 40,1-3)
It is the words from the beginning of Isaiah 40 that proclaims that Israel’s exile in the Babylon is about to end. I feel the same as the prophet Isaiah because we all have gone through the difficult times in the semester as we look forward to the end of the semester and the Christmas.
Covid-19 has never gone away, still making us suffer, so our life is not normal. We have to endure many things and do things that we never think of before.
Look at John the Baptist who chose to suffer for preparing the way of Lord. He lived in the desert, wearing clothing made of camel’s hair and eating locusts and wild honey.
But his hardship and agony had not gone empty and he knew his suffering would be a small step for the Lord’s coming.
We are like John the Baptist, finding us standing in the wilderness, being asked to do something beyond our capability.
Nevertheless, if we take a full responsibility to prepare the Lord’s way or just to show God to others who lost hope, it could be the same mission of John the Baptist.
Suffering is always around us, the point is how we take it. In the time of Covid-19, there would be more chances for us to be a John the Baptist who stands up for the greater cause and sacrifices personal desires for others.
We are John the Baptists who fear not and know that we shall not be put to shame because we are the messengers of the Lord who gives us strength.
We all have done great works this semester! Good job, I am proud of you. Let us give big applauds to one another.
Thanks to our small steps, the Lord will come to comfort and give us hope and peace.
O come, o come Emmanuel!
